On Sunday May 8th, Nick and Ivanka will be sharing their preparations and excitement for the ‘Big Trip’ by being part of the BMW Day hosted annually at the Ace Cafe London. On the day we will bring along the GS 1150 Adventure that we are taking, it will be fully loaded in terms of accessories and gadgets and, we will be available to tell you how we have personally prepared for this ‘unsupported trip’ – oh and by the way, it will be the start of our honeymoon. The following week, the bike is off to a freight company, so this will be our last planned ‘ride out’ before we hit Alaskan soil. We simply cannot wait!

Come along and meet us on Sunday 8th May and find out why this trip is so special and of how it has taken us almost a year to prepare and get things organised. From motorcycle maintenance courses to kitting the bike, then reading about Canadian bears to fuel burners; also find out about our fund raising efforts as we look to raise £20,000 for our chosen charity Oxfam. For this day at the cafe, we will be as equipped as we will ever be and we look forward to meeting fellow adventure rider enthusiasts to share our experiences and get ready for a honeymoon and a ride with a difference.

We look forward to returning to Ace Cafe London in 2012 with 24,000 miles under our belt and smiles from ear to ear. Please feel free to donate to our Just Giving page on this link:http://www.justgiving.com/bootsboatsandbikes

Thank you for your support and perhaps we will see you on the 8th May.

Just Walk is a great ‘little event’ organised by Across the Divide. You give them some money and they let you walk around the Sussex countryside for either 20km, 40km or 60km – and they feed you! It is up to you to raise money for charity and there is no minimum fee to raise.

Donating and raising money for charity is something I think is important – I am lucky enough to live the life I live – but I do find the targets are sometimes a little on the demanding side. That’s why I think Just Walk is such a brilliant idea. The thing that makes me shy about hassling my friends and family for charity money is that I enjoy the challenge of walking 60km and would do it for my own personal rewards as readily as I would do it to raise money for a charity.

Just Walk 2009 saw Jules, Temo and me walk 60km in 11 hours 58 minutes. I was absolutely delighted with the result.

I use (and yes, it is usually me clutching it) Jules’ Garmin GPS for pacing as these sort of events have the routes well marked out and we did a brilliant job of staying on target for our 12 hours.

I was completely elated.

Then I fainted.

The medics ‘hussled’ but I just couldn’t sort myself out enough to get off the ground. I was freezing cold and, after about an hour I talked them into letting me crawl (literally) into my mother’s car, still wrapped in the space blanket and we drove back to Brighton with the heating on full. By the time we got to my mother’s flat I was pretty much recovered.

Whenever I do an event which pushes my limits a bit I do find that my body temperature drops really rapidly when I stop. For this reason I had my mother loaded up with lots of warm clothes to greet me with but, in the post-event analysis, we decided that I had drunk too much water without replacing electrolytes.